Free Lessons in Animation

Overview

Many IT students in the multimedia discipline are usually looking to work in the animation industry. Students who are looking to become animators are also required to take art classes in addition to the IT classes required for multimedia, such as Flash, Photoshop and Expression Studio. The multimedia students that I’ve spoken to are always looking for more art classes because either their school’s curriculum doesn’t offer enough art classes or the art classes that they are taking are lacking. What if there was an opportunity to get animation lessons from an established animator and innovator of Flash animation? John Kricfalusi, the creator of Ren and Stimpy and a pioneer of using Flash for animation, is offering free animation lessons to qualified artists in his Cartoon College.

Cartoon College

John Kricfalusi launched his blog, All Kinds of Stuff (http://johnkstuff.blogspot.com), for fans who want to read about cartoons and its history and aspiring animators who want to learn about cartoons. The Cartoon College evolved from the blog to give aspiring animators a chance to hone their craft and improve upon their skills without having to pay a fortune in lessons.

The only requirement to participate in the Cartoon College is you have to audition for a spot. You post a comment on Mr. Kricfalusi’s blog, John K Stuff, requesting him to review your work. You should already have a repository for your work, such as a personal blog or a web site. If you are accepted, he sends you an invitation to join the class. To help your chances with getting accepted, Mr. Kricfalusi has posted helpful advice and information for the aspiring animator to follow. Below are the following links to the advice and information:

• Animation Lessons


• Preston Blair Lessons


• Construction Lesssons

The college is a self-paced learning environment, so there aren’t any hard deadlines to follow. Mr. Kricfalusi will analyze your work and provide helpful comments to help you improve on your craft. Your peers in the college will also provide comments about your work, and you are encouraged to comment on your peers’ work.

Another advantage of the Cartoon College is you have a chance to work on an actual project of John K’s if you do well in the lessons and get paid for it. While a portfolio is nice to have to show examples of your work, practical experience on a “real world” project often gives the student a leg up over students who have no practical experience.

If you are a serious animator looking to hone your craft with an animation legend for free, consider auditioning for the Cartoon College.

Note: The author is not being remunerated by John Kricfalusi for the site review, nor does the author have any association or affiliation with John Kricfalusi's site.

Choosing the Right School - REVISITED

As we're getting ready to start a new year, it's a good time to revisit the subject of choosing a post-secondary institution. If you are a graduating senior in high school, this is the time where you are looking at your post-secondary education options. This is also a popular time of year for non-traditional students (ex: working adults returning to school) to view their options as well.
Before continuing with this article, read the post that I made in July: Choosing the Right School

I cannot stress the importance of future students to investigate all of their options before making a selection. Students have so many misconceptions that they end up making poor choices. Here are some of the biggest mistakes that I've seen students make regarding their post-secondary education choice:

• Students quickly choose to attend a for-profit institution because they assume their grades or test scores were too poor to get accepted in a college or university.


• Students invest too much money in a field of study when they decide, mid-way through their studies, that it's not what they wanted to do when they "grow up".


• Students don't spend enough time with investigating their options. For example, they choose a school without interviewing the professors and existing students or without sitting in on a class to see what it's going to be like.


• The motivation for choosing a particular school has nothing to do with the quality of education. For example, students choose to attend a particular school because it's a "party school" or "it's the same school where 3 generations of my family attended".

Regional vs. National Accreditation
If you are looking to attend a school for a short period of time and transfer to another institution (ex: you are going to go to community college for two years and transfer to a four-year institution), you want to pay attention to how the school is accredited. If a school is nationally accredited, the credits will have less chance of transferring to a "traditional" college or university than it would if the school is regionally accredited. Believe it or not, regional accreditation carries more weight with most colleges and universities than national accreditation because the standards to be regionally accredited are more stringent. The boards that provide regional accreditation are the same boards that provide accreditation to the primary (elementary) and secondary (high) schools.
If you are not interested in transferring to other schools, and you are only interested in a career education (brush up on existing skills, learn new skills for a different career path), make sure the school is either regionally or nationally accredited. Like I mentioned earlier, most employers don't care about where you got your degree. They only care if you got your degree from an accredited institution.


If you are going to invest tens of thousands of dollars in something, wouldn't you spend time investigating where you are going to get the best return on investment? Think of your post-secondary education as an investment. You need to thoroughly investigate all the options before making your choice. Here are some suggestions on what to investigate:

1. Investigate the attrition (drop-out) rate of the school. If the attrition rate is high, that's a red flag.


2. If you are looking at a for-profit school, investigate their job placement rating. Don't just look at a number; look at how they derive that number. For example, if you went to a school to study networking, and you are working at Best Buy, the school may marked you as "placed in your field".


3. See if you can interview professors and other students independently. The recruiter may bring in shills that will talk positively of the school, so you want to be able to talk to a sample yourself so you can get an HONEST opinion.


4. Talk to people that work in the field that you're interested in and get their perspective of schools. For example, if you are going to study computer programming, talk to some software engineers and computer programmers and get their opinion on schools that interest you.


5. DO A COST COMPARISON Remember that "expensive" doesn't mean the "best", and "cheap" doesn't mean the "worst"

If you have any questions, please contact me or leave a comment. I'll be glad to help you as much as you can.



The Common Misconceptions Students Have Regarding Schools

• My grades/SAT scores/ACT scores were too poor to get into a "regular" college
  If you have had less-than-stellar grades or testing scores, you may not have a really good chance with getting into Harvard or MIT, but you will still be able to go to a community college. Nearly all community colleges don't look at testing scores or grades for admission criteria. You may have to take some remedial classes, but this can be your opportunity to redeem yourself. If you are going to a four-year institution after you finish community college, the four-year institution will look at your record at community college for admission.
  


• Community College is for losers; employers won't take that degree seriously
  First point: very few employers care about where you went to school or where you got your degree. The only thing that they care about regarding your degree is whether it came from an accredited institution. Community colleges are accredited by the same boards that accreditate the four-plus year universities. Second point: you can use that two year degree as a stepping stone to a four-year degree from a university. Here's a brain-teaser: What do you call the Harvard graduate who spent two years at a community college and finished his/her schooling at Harvard? Answer: A Harvard graduate.
  


• For-profit learning institutions are a scam
  Not so fast. While I prefer community and non-profit colleges over the for-profit colleges, they are not a complete "scam". For-profit colleges are starting to act as their non-profit cousins. Some are going so far as to get accredited by the same boards that accreditate the non-profit universities, which gives a student more options should s/he decide to transfer or further his/her education. I would recommend a for-profit institution if:
  
  
  
  • You already work in the field in which you are studying and you need to quickly update your skillset, AND you are able to get enough funding for the school where you are able to go for almost free or free